Welcome back to another review of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. To recap, there were a lot of introductions to our main characters in the first two episodes and introductions to a few monsters that we have only seen for one episode aside from Godzilla. Here is the list of characters:
Old Bill Randa - Bill Randa is one of the founding fathers of Monarch. When an expedition to Skull Island goes terribly wrong, he begins recording himself as his last will and testament to his son, Hiroshi Randa, saying he was sorry he was not around much and wanted to leave behind something for him. A "legacy" as he calls it. He is then chased by a giant spider called Mother Longlegs, which finds himself over a cliff that leads to the ocean. He throws away his satchel that is carrying his recorded video into the ocean. As he is about to be killed by the Mother Longlegs, a giant mud crab called a Mantle Claw pops out of the ground and fights with the Mother Longlegs allowing Bill to live another day, but starting a string of future events that will bring our main characters on a long and frustrating journey.
Cate Randa - She is one of the main character of the present day story line. She flew to Japan in the wake of her father's death to settle family affairs. As she gets to her father's apartment, she discovers another family living in the apartment that turns out to Cate's father has a secret second family. She was also on the Golden Gate Bridge on the day Godzilla attacked in 2014 and had also bumped into a few Monarch agents documenting the attack. She had developed PTSD since then and with the discovery of Bill Randa's satchel locked behind a safe her curiosity peaked into wanting to know more about how her father is connected to the organization.
Kentaro Randa - Kentaro is another main character of the present day story line and Cate's half-brother. Kentaro has a disdain for Cate after learning about their father living secret lives. He wishes to preserve the good memories he had with his father and was first dragged into digging into his father's secret life by Cate, he starts to build a curiosity of his own about Monarch.
May - May is a hacker and Kentaro's ex-girlfriend. She was approached by Kentaro and Cate to help them out in trying to decrypt a storage disk that has secret Monarch documents about the monsters. She wanted nothing to do with Kentaro and Cate, but after some persuading she agrees to help them out. This decryption of the disk gets found out by Monarch's security team, which will then cause Cate, Kentaro, and May to be tracked down and forcing them to find Col. Lee Shaw to help them out.
Hiroshi Randa - Hiroshi is the son of Bill Randa and the father of Cate and Kentaro. For a long time, Hiroshi has been living secret lives kept hidden from his two families. Ever since his death, Cate and Kentaro are forced to find out what else he could be hiding and how he is connected to Monarch.
Tim - A researcher at Monarch, Tim discovers the files of Bill Randa have been hacked and were being stolen by Cate, Kentaro, and May. He took it upon himself to recover the trio and recover the files that were taken, but failed. He learns that Kentaro and his mother were related to Hiroshi Randa from a framed picture he found in the living room.
Old Lee Shaw - In the present day, Lee Shaw is a retired Colonel who is under house arrest by Monarch at a retirement community. His life has been quiet away without any contact from the outside for a very long time. He views Hiroshi like a son he never had and played the role of Hiroshi's uncle due to his close relations with Bill Randa and Dr. Keiko Miura.
Young Lee Shaw - In the past time line, Lee Shaw was a sort of a hot headed soldier that would get himself into fights with others in his own platoon. Due to this, he was assigned to escort Dr. Keiko Miura to investigate trails of ionized radiation. During her investigation, the pair run into cryptozoologist and Monarch founder Bill Randa, who is out to look for a dragon that has been reported sightings by the locals in the Philippines. Lee was discharged by Dr. Miura after disagreeing to tag along with Bill in his investigation. He drives part way back to the military base until he decides to turn around and follow Dr. Miura and Bill to the battleship USS Lawton where he finds them being attacked by the Ion Dragon. Lee rescues them and make their escape off the Lawton making their way to edge of the jungle as the dragon swoops over them chasing them away from its territory. Years later, the trio would travel to Kazakhstan to investigate an abandoned nuclear facility where there is zero traces of radiation. They discover a nest of eggs underneath the facility where they begin to hatch and attack the trio.
Dr. Keiko Miura - A researcher in radiology, mother of Hiroshi Randa, and grandmother of Cate and Kentaro Randa, Dr. Keiko Miura was originally assigned to investigate mysterious trails of ion radiation reported in the Philippines. She was escorted by Lee Shaw to the location where the trail ends in the middle of the jungle. She and Lee run into cryptozoologist and Monarch founder Bill Randa, who is out to investigate reported sightings of a dragon. Keiko takes interest in Bill's investigation, but Lee refuses to tag along leading to Keiko discharging the soldier and following Bill further into the jungle finding the USS Lawton. The pair investigate the ship finding out something is still on the ship based on fresh saliva that was discovered. The dragon attacks Keiko and Bill and corner them into a corridor until Lee arrives to save them. The trio escapes the ship unscathed and chased into the jungle by the Ion Dragon. Years later, the trio travel to Kazakhstan where they investigate an abandoned facility said to be polluted with radiation only to find no traces anywhere. They discover a nest of eggs that begin to hatch and try to escape. Lee and Bill see Keiko struggling to climb up the rope and they try to do the best of their strength to save her. Due to the weight of the rope getting heavier due to the Endo Swarmers swarming to attack Keiko leading her to fall back down to the nest.
Young Bill Randa - Bill (aka Billy) Randa is a cryptozoologist and a former navy officer that was stationed on the USS Lawton before something sank the battleship. He came across Dr. Keiko Miura and Lt. Lee Shaw during his hunt for the dragon that was reported by the locals. Keiko takes an interest in Bill's investigation and decides to follow Bill into the jungle. The pair discover that the sightings of the dragon and the trail of ion radiation align and it leads them to location of the USS Lawton. The pair are later attacked by the dragon during their investigation inside the Lawton and was rescued by Lee, which they escape the ship and fled into the jungle. Years later, the trio go to Kazakhstan to investigate an abandoned facility rumored to be polluted by radiation where they discover no traces can be found anywhere. They soon discover an underground nest of eggs, which hatches and the M.U.T.Os called Endo Swarmers begin to attack. The trio try to escape, but Keiko was struggling to climb up the rope. Bill tries to aid her by pulling up the rope and yet the rope was too heavy to pull due to the swarm forcing Bill to let go and Keiko falling back down into the nest.
Monsters encountered so far:
Mother Longlegs
Mantle Claw
Godzilla
Endo Swarmers
Ion Dragon
In this new episode, it starts off in 1954 where Lee, Keiko, and Bill meet with Colonel Puckett about the escalation of monster sightings as well as a giant footprint that was discovered. Lee convinces the colonel that if they want to know if these creatures exist then they can try luring the monster with large amounts of uranium. Meanwhile in the present, Old Lee takes Cate, Kentaro, and May and breaks out of the retirement center where they travel to South Korea by cargo ship, but Kentaro convinces Lee that they need to go to Alaska if Hiroshi is still alive.
This episode he me thinking of two things. The first one is the obvious retcon of the events from Godzilla Awakening. In the show, we see Godzilla lured to the Bikini Atoll and Godzilla was the only monster that was present. In the graphic novel, it showed both Godzilla and another monster called Shinomura were lured to the Bikini Atoll where they would fight just as the bomb detonated. It just confirms that the comics are never really canon to the Monsterverse as a whole. Any detail can be changed at any moment. This did not really surprise me, but it was what I feared and it also confirms that the comics are not necessary to understand the movies these comics release with. It's not a complaint that I have because in the thick of it, it is about trying to get the general audience interested. Godzilla fans would be watching the show regardless. I just wish that some events from the graphic novels were referenced or played out in live action so the entire cinematic universe feels more connected.
The second thought I had was the show revealing Cate's and Kentaro's father, Hiroshi, could still be alive. This idea was suggested when the group discovers the abandoned campsite in Alaska. It had me theorizing that Hiroshi wanted his kids to find him. It had me thinking about what if he faked his death so Monarch wouldn't trace him. Even if he really did die, his two families would discover each other eventually. He had to have known that both families will resent him for it after they discover each other, but if he really died why would Cate have the keys to all of his secrets in the first episode? These are the keys to the apartment where Kentaro and his mother lived and the keys to the filing cabinet where files of Monarch's documents were hidden and where Old Lee was located all handed down to Cate to find. I do think Hiroshi is in hiding from Monarch and he wants his kids, with the help from Lee, to expose Monarch and to find him. That is my theory, anyways.
I have heard complaints about the women characters and making them woke. So far, they have not been bad nor do I get any sense of wokeness from them. I can still relate to them as to why they act the way they do. Cate despises her father for hiding the fact that he has a second family and she wants nothing to do with them nor want to dig any further into Monarch, yet she is stuck in this because her curiosity got the best of her. May is not happy because she got dragged into something that is beyond her understanding by Kentaro and feels as though her life is ruined. I have not seen any of them show tendencies of being a Mary Sue character, which they can solve all of the problems at a whim and outclass all of the characters just to one up the men. If you are looking for that, then turn to Skull Island on Netflix. That is a perfect example of a show (a Monsterverse show, nonetheless) gone woke.
But this episode is not about May nor Cate nor is it about Kentaro. This episode was more focused on Lee Shaw in both the past and present. He was the one that set in motion getting military support for Monarch in the past and being Monarch's number one target for breaking out of the retirement center in the present. He helped get Monarch the recognition needed and agreeing to go along with keeping Monarch's discovery a secret and then is turned into a potential threat to exposing Monarch. As to how he came to this situation is still unknown, but we do know that the organization Bill Randa started is not the same organization in the present.
In the movies, Monarch has always been seen as lawful good. They kept these monsters a secret so the world didn't have to know about them and have been trying to protect the monsters from the world so they wouldn't be hunted down. For three episodes, we have seen that Monarch is not as lawful good as portrayed in the movies. They are currently in a grey area that are trying to take back control in the aftermath of G-Day. Monarch is trying to go back into hiding from the world and with Cate, Kentaro, and May now having Lee outside their watchful eye there is a very high chance Monarch could get exposed, which makes this group of main characters a big threat to the organization. So we are seeing Monarch in a more antagonistic role.
The monsters focused in this episode are:
Godzilla - For most of episode 3, Godzilla has been the main focus. We see the military has tried to kill Godzilla with the hydrogen bomb and Lee explained to Cate, Kentaro, and May that it was tried before. As I initially explained in the second paragraph, how Godzilla and Castle Bravo was portrayed was vastly different from Godzilla Awakening. The portrayal of Godzilla in this show was a lot closer to the 2014 movie than the comic did. Also, this Godzilla is slightly different from the 2014 version. While most of the 2014 design stayed in-tact, this Godzilla that was seen in the show was very slimmed down and less bulky. It makes me wondering if Godzilla was starving due to how slim he was. If so, then it was no wonder that something like a bomb would attract him. A bomb would be like a Thanksgiving turkey to Godzilla.
Frost Vark - This is the monster that looks like a mix between a mole and a pangolin. It appeared right at the end of the episode to ambush our main protagonists. What is intriguing is that it is capable of freezing its victims, but not in a way one would expect. It doesn't breathe out an ice breath like you would expect. Rather than spewing out a frost breath, it sucks in the air around the victim and freezes them. It seems as though the Frost Vark is attracted to anything radiating heat based on the fact that it attacked the plane after the pilot had started it up. We do also see in the trailer the Frost Vark sneaking behind Lee while Lee was close to a camp fire. So it may very well be consuming heat, which freezes its victims in the process. We will have to wait until episode 4 releases to see what else this monster is capable of.
Overall, this was another good episode that left me wanting to see more. I can't wait to see what are protagonists will find next when the next episode drops December 1st..
What are your thoughts on episode 3 of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters? Was this one of your favorite episodes? What are your thoughts on the changes to the events of Castle Bravo? Leave a comment in the comments section of your thoughts on this episode. Make sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Minds, MeWe, Gab, and TRUTH Social to stay up to date for more news, reviews, and discussions.